Teen Titans: One by One
by Autumnchronicles
Summary: When the Teen Titans' powers are each stolen by a mysterious new criminal, they are forced into hiding as normal teenagers in *shudder* high school. Will they learn the criminal's motives and regain their powers or remain normal forever? RavxBB; StarxRob
1. The Cloaked Figure and The Voice

_A/N: __**Edit:**__ I'm finally going to continue this fic, but I'm editing already existing chappies first, kk? I'd reread, if I were you. The dialogue's all different now._

_Hello, Autumn here! A short note before you begin; this is the plot I dreamed up after watching 'Trouble in Tokyo.' I began writing it six months ago, but had to disband the project because of school. I just recently resumed it. Like, a week ago. This chapter is kind of a prologue, actually, considering none of the Teen Titans actually make an appearance until the next chapter. It's just the background on the villain. XD I hope everyone enjoys it anyway, considering the Teen Titans WILL be in the next chapter. Now without further ado, my first new story since summer._

**Teen Titans: One By One**

**1. The Cloaked Figure and The Voice**

A Cloaked Figure is shoved into an armored room that's promptly locked before they can even attempt to get away. The Figure's mouth and nose are concealed by a cloth mask that disappears under the shadow of their hood, and their hands are clad in gloves. Their clothes are all long sleeved even though it's still summer outside, and a pair of azure eyes are all that can be seen of them. They kneel in the center of the grim room for a moment before standing to glare at their reflection in the one-way, bulletproof glass.

"Alright, what the hell do you want with me?" a mechanically doctored voice demands from beneath the mask. There is a short pause before The Figure's captor replies.

"I've been watching you for a while now, just to confirm a few rising suspicions. I've come to believe that you have power. Strong power." The reply filters from a pair of crude speakers mounted on the walls of the chamber. The sound quality is terrible, and the captor's voice is awfully cracked and muffled. Both the captor and the captured are too secretive to reveal their face or voice.

"That's a pretty lame excuse for snatching a person off the street at two in the morning. I mean, just how long have you been 'watching me,' anyway? Don't you have any idea how to mind your own business?"

"I've been keep tabs on you for the past three months. I'm sorry if you feel that I've invaded your privacy, but you might not find my reasons so unorthodox after I've explained a bit."

"Explain away, Mr. Stalker."

Its captor chuckles. "Although you haven't noticed yet, you've been developing super powers for the past three months. Special super powers. They could be very useful in the near future."

"Super powers? What have _you _been smoking? If you've really been stalking me that long, you'd know that I'm barely scraping by, trying to make a living for myself. I think I'd be living a little more comfortably if I did have any." The Cloaked Figure replies coldly.

"Like I said before, you haven't noticed them yet. I assure you, however, that once you have mastered them you will be living more than just 'comfortably.'"

"Okay, if I do have hidden powers, how come you even know about them?"

"I have the ability to sense others powers. I've brought you here because yours have almost fully developed, and I didn't want you to get into trouble on the streets once they did. It happens much too often to the gifted, you know. They never know what to do with themselves after finding out."

"Trouble on the streets? What are you talking about?"

"Unintended misuse of your powers. Luckily, you had enough sense to know something was different as your powers naturally matured. You've noticed how unusual things have occurred as you've come into contact with other humans lately. A jolt of energy passing between you and them, or a dizzy spell perhaps. Hence the gloves and mask. Have you noticed anything else?"

"No, people . . . people just really piss me off; I get sick too often around them."

"It's your powers . . ."

"I don't have any. You're coming to a false conclusion," snaps The Figure.

"Or am I? Let's test this theory." The Voice cackles gleefully over the speakers.

"How about we don't, and just take this back to square one and let me go home, huh?"

The Cloaked Figure's suggestion is readily ignored. A panel slides away from the ceiling and a person drops down into the chamber. He straightens up and cocks his head at The Figure, who takes a step back. The person is a relatively young man who may still be in his late teens. His hair is such a striking shade of bleach blonde that at first glance it appears to be pure white. His eyes are an unnaturally ashen-grey color, much the same tint as his skin, and his clothes are baggy and plain. His thin features bring out his exhaustion, and his eyes radiate depression.

"What is this?" The Cloaked Figure demands. Their eyes widen when the speakers crackle back to life and utter a single word.

"Attack."

The teenager goes in for a punch and The Figure ducks out of the way nimbly. "Can we say I don't have any powers?" They run to the other side of the chamber and flatten against the wall defensively. When the teenager gets close to them again, they kick him away and he falls backwards.

As the pale teenager struggles to get back on his feet, The Cloaked Figure is taken aback when he pipes up. "What exactly is your power, anyway?"

"Um . . . did you not hear me before? Nothing! Who are you people?"

"I'm Apparition. What's your name?"

"You call that a name?" The Cloaked Figure remarks. They brace themselves. The pale teen glances at the speakers and sighs. He shakes his head nervously before lunging.

He appears to be a relatively weak opponent at first. All he does is throw a few quick jabs and some fast kicks that a physically fit person like The Figure can easily dodge. His energy is sapped up fast by this, and soon he's breathing heavily from the effort. It seems like The Cloaked Figure might not need any superpowers to bring down this kid. At least, until the teenager decides fires up his power– making doppelgängers of himself.

"Crap," they mutter.

One of the doppelgängers charges and tries to tackle them much more aggressively than he did before, only to be quickly shoved away by The Figure. The doppelgänger skids backwards and dissipates when he collides with the wall. The Figure pauses and gives the Apparition army a quizzical look.

"The joys of having a sucky power," Apparition's lone voice sounds from somewhere within his small crowd of doubles. "If my doppelgängers take a good hit they'll disappear. That's why I'm Apparition. I'm the only one that can't disappear."

"The only one? There's a dozen of you," The Figure points out dryly.

"The original."

The Cloaked Figure hesitates. Although only one of their opponents is real, trying to avoid the original could tire them out real quick. The Figure jumps back when the speakers crackle to life again.

"You two need to focus. Apparition, don't hold back. You, stop being so defensive. Try and figure out how to use your powers, hm?"

"I don't have any, you old phonograph," The Figure mumbles under their breath. They dodge a three way attack from Apparition and try desperately to avoid the clones. The Figure succeeds in their evasion strategy for a few more seconds, when a sudden blow to the shin brings The Figure to the ground. Apparition's doppelgängers fade away and the original pins them to the ground. They struggle to get loose, but Apparition has an iron hold on it.

"Well, it was entertaining while it lasted," Apparition says almost sadly. "Sorry. Whoever you are."

Apparition firmly clasps The Cloaked Figure's neck and begins to squeeze the life out of them. The Figure chokes and tries to loosen his grip, but with no avail. Spots blot out the grim little room as The Figure's vision begins going out of focus. The Figure is just about to slip away, when a sudden impulse causes it to kick Apparition in the stomach.

He winces and is forced to stop strangling The Figure for a moment, but he still has enough wits about him to throw a punch at the weakened Figure lying on the ground. The Figure is in no condition to dodge the attack and it knows it. All it can do is brace itself the best it can. When the hit is inevitably landed, however, something unexpected happens. Instead of breaking The Figure's nose as he had hoped, Apparition is inflicted with a burning pain that causes him to recoil from The Figure. He cries out in agony and collapses. The Figure can only stare in shock before a sudden realization strikes the Figure and their eyes narrow knowingly. The Cloaked Figure plucks a black glove from one of their hands and slowly reaches for the pained teenager's face. They hesitate only a second before last inch is finally closed in between The Figure's hand and Apparition's face. His final cry resounds off the walls metallic confine like a sore, stubborn memory one just can't forget, until at last it happens.

Apparition's body is suddenly consumed by a bright flash of light that momentarily envelopes the chamber before rushing into The Figure's hand. The sudden intake of power slams them into the one-way glass, where they fall to the ground unmoving. After a spell, they groan and finally muster the energy to crawl to their feet.

"Very good," the voice crackles over the speakers. "You see, you do have power."

The Cloaked Figure shivers and replaces the glove they removed before. "You call murder . . . power?"

"Murder?" The voice repeats in a bemused voice. "You may have killed Apparition, but he was a criminal anyway, no big loss. You just don't have full control over your powers yet, but you'll eventually be able to steal from others without killing them, if you wish."

"Steal?" The Figure's voice is barely audible now.

"Yes. That is your power, to steal other's powers. The reason I had you face him first was so that you could acquire his own powers, enabling you to use yours to the full extent. I'm sorry if you feel so badly about killing him, but like I said, you still don't have full control."

"Wh-what?"

"Listen carefully. I've brought you here to help you. You've only recently developed these powers, and you desperately need help mastering them. I could assist you, train you. With the proper guidance you would be unstoppable, with all the world at your command. You could do as ever you please. Even, although you seem skeptical of the concept at the moment, murder. After all, it is revenge that you seek, isn't it?" The speakers whisper temptingly. A pair of ash colored eyes flash from within the cloak.

"How do you know that?" The Figure chokes angrily.

"Three months, remember?" the voice chuckles. A shiver shoots down the figure's spine.

"If you really know what happened . . . why do you want to help me take revenge?" They word carefully.

"Because I possess the one piece of information you lack– the culprit."

The Figure's pale eyes widen from beneath the cloak. "You know who did it?"

"I do."

"But . . . why do you want to help me?"

"I, too, want revenge. However, my powers are limited and I cannot stop them alone. This is why I need you."

A pause.

"Who is it?"

There is no verbal reply from the speakers. Instead, the panel slides away from the ceiling again and a small, metal object drops inside the chamber. The object bounces off the dim floor a few times before rolling to a stop near The Figure's feet. The Cloaked Figure slowly reaches for the small, dinted object and turns it over slowly in their gloved hands. For a moment, The Cloaked Figure is shocked when the imprint on the object's face is revealed, but they manage to quickly recover.

"So. _They_ did it," The Figure whispers. They turns the small object over a few more times before finally pocketing it. "When do we start?"

A chuckle streams from the speakers. "I thought you'd agree."

As The Cloaked Figure is released from the room, it steals a peak at the device one last time. There, scratched and faded yet still legible, reads a single letter. 'T.'

It's a Teen Titans communicator.

_A/N: Oh yeah, just a warning in advance for anyone who's unfamiliar with my writing; I LOVE cliffhangers. Sorry. XD The next chapter will come some time next week. That's when the REAL fun is going to begin!_

_~Autumnchronicles_


	2. Trouble

_A/N: K, here's the next chapter! ;3 It's a loooooong one. I just wanna apologize in advanced for the deadly bad cliffhanger it ends with, and I'm sure most of you will all hate me for it. I cried reading it over again, and a close friend of mine hated me for thirty minutes afterward. (Lol, yes I am talking about you, Em. Ha ha, luv ya and I give you permission to talking about me in your author's notes too. XD) Don't kill me, get caught up in the moment instead and sigh with *some* relief at the beginning of the third chapter. (when I post it) Here we go; This first arc's aaaaall about my fav., BB. Beginning inspired by his love of Japanese comics shown in the movie. (XD Otaku!)_

**2. Trouble**

Beast Boy sighs as he scans the long rows of manga stacked neatly on the bookshelves. There are dozens of titles he wants to buy, but . . . He sighs again when he glances inside his almost empty wallet. There's only a couple of ones left. Not nearly enough.

He came with the girls to go shopping while Cy and Robin did some maintenance on the Tower, but he somehow forgot he was broke until he checked how many volumes he could afford. Beast Boy knows Starfire only came to hang out with Raven. And that she didn't bring money. That means there's only one thing he can do if he wants to buy anything.

Beg.

Beast Boy runs his fingers through his messy green hair as he crams his useless wallet back into the confines of his pocket and heads to the little café across the store. He reaches it just as Raven finishes paying for a latte. He clears his throat.

"What?" Raven grumbles.

"Um . . . I was just wondering . . . do you have any spare tens?" he asks cautiously.

"Spare tens . . ." she repeats. Raven picks up the latte and takes a sip. "What for?"

"To buy stuff with, of course!" Beast Boy exclaims.

"Don't you have your own money?" Raven makes a face. She sets the latte down on the counter by the register and pries the lid off.

"Well . . ." he trails off in thought. "Do you remember that video game I bought last month?"

Raven scoops up a handful of sugar packets and begins emptying their contents into the latte. "The shooting one you play all the time?"

"Huh? Well . . . I wouldn't say _all _the time but . . . yeah, that one."

"What about it?" Raven takes another cautious sip and sets it down again.

"Well, I kind of had to get a new game system to play it. So . . . it . . . kind of . . . cleaned me out . . ." he mumbles the end.

Raven rips open twice as many packets as before. "And you want me to give you money."

"Um . . . y-yeah," Beast Boy stutters. Raven whirls around to face him and raises an eyebrow.

"Are you really . . . serious? No." Raven scrapes the remains of the sugar packets into the trash can and picks up her latte again. Beast Boy blinks a couple of times before protesting.

"Aww, come on Raven! We're friends! I'll pay you back as soon as I can get the money! I promise!"

"I already told you, no," she growls. Raven takes a long drink from her latte and grimaces. "Remind me not to buy beverages here again."

"Please?" Beast Boy begs desperately. Raven grumbles and shoves the lid back on the latte. She shrugs him off and returns to the table where Starfire is waiting.

"Here," Raven almost slams the latte down on the table in front of her.

"Thank you, Raven!" Starfire exclaims, oblivious to the conflict between her and Beast Boy. The alien begins slurping down the contents contentedly.

"Raven?" he says. She ignores him and starts heading for a nearby bookshelf. "Raven?" he repeats. Raven ducks behind a display and pretends to browse through a stack of battered old diet cookbooks nobody wants to buy. "Dude! You're the last person I know that needs a diet." A green bird lands in front of the stack of cookbooks. With some annoyance, she realizes it's her namesake. She abruptly stands up and takes an interest in the teen romance section. Her name is repeated several times more. Carefully controlling her mounting anger, Raven slowly turns to face Beast Boy.

"Will you stop bugging me if I give you money?"

He nods.

"Here." Raven levitates a ten and smacks him in the face with it before heading for the back of the store.

"Hey!" Beast Boy calls after her. "This is just one ten! I can only afford one with this! How am I supposed to choose?"

"That's your problem," she says over her shoulder. "You did only asked for spare _tens. _Everything else is twenties."

Beast Boy face-palms himself and shuffles back to the manga section with his ten. He stares at Raven for a few seconds as she silently browses through the titles displayed in the back. He shakes his head and tries to decide what he wants.

"Hmm . . . maybe I'll get this one," he mutters to himself. Beast Boy is about to pay, when his communicator suddenly goes off. He can hear Raven and Starfire's from across the store, too.

"Aww, man," he groans as he answers it. Beast Boy knows it's Robin before his picture even shows up.

"Titans, there's trouble!" Robin exclaims from the other end.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah . . ." Beast Boy leaves the manga behind at the counter and heads out the door with Raven and Starfire.

---

"You picked the worst time to call, you know that?" Beast Boy complains to Robin as they run down the street.

"Hey, don't blame him just because someone picked now to blow up the bridge," Cyborg says.

Beast Boy sighs. "He could've at least waited until after I payed . . ."

"Speaking of which," Raven remarks, "you owe me ten dollars."

"Why must Beast Boy pay you that amount?" Starfire pipes up from above. Raven takes to the air as she replies.

"Because someone forgot they were broke and promised they'd pay me back if I loaned them money."

"Ah, so he must now pay you back ten as well as an interest?" Starfire reasons innocently. Cyborg, Robin, and Raven are momentarily dumbfounded by her sudden knowledge in things monetary.

"How does she even know what that is?" Cyborg marvels. Robin cocks a small smile and shrugs.

Beast Boy, on the other hand, cocks his head and stares at Starfire in confusion. "Wha? What is she talking about? What does she mean 'as well as.'"

Cyborg bursts out laughing.

"What?" Beast Boy asks louder. Cyborg looks ready to start teasing him when a muffled explosion sounds in the distance.

"Hey!" Robin suddenly sobers. "We're almost there. Be on your guard."

The Titans follow his lead as they reach the edge of the coast. Smoke is rising from an unusual void in the bridge and curling menacingly over the azure bay. Cars are still streaming away from the gap in the road, even though the chain of explosions quit minutes ago. They pause for a moment to overlook the scene.

Then suddenly, "Titans, go!"

The team springs into action. Starfire and Raven soar overhead, carefully surveying the area for a cause, while Cyborg and Robin get the rest of the traffic off the road. Beast Boy goes for a solo underwater approach as an orca. Before long, they have the entire perimeter surrounded. But there's still no significant movement.

Robin allows a few minutes to tick by before he starts getting anxious. "Raven, could you go in closer to check it out?" He calls from his position on the bridge.

The violet clad girl lowers herself into the haze and takes a quick look around. She can see nothing from the air, so she finally just lands near ruined edge of bridge. Raven approaches the giant crack separating each half and looks down to see an emerald killer whale waving a flipper at her. Raven rolls her eyes at Beast Boy and makes to leave. He doesn't stop waving, however. When Raven is about to turn around he starts splashing around loudly and waving much more frantically.

Raven groans. "What is . . ." she turns around and gasps. She barely has enough time to drop through what's left of the bridge to avoid a sudden collision with an airborne bomb. It goes off milliseconds after she's below, leaving Raven too shaken up to fly off. Fire, ash, and rubble fall all around her, but she's disoriented. Her cape flares up around her and she holds out her arms to steady herself as she plummets down to the ocean.

At the last second, something shoots out of the water and snatches up Raven by the cape. For a moment she's surprised. Then she glances up, and the expression quickly fades from her face. Beast Boy has gone pterodactyl to 'save' her. Raven relaxes for a moment, watching stone collide with the water in an awing ballet. At last she finds her words again.

"You know I would've been perfectly fine." The pterodactyl gives her a look. Raven rolls her eyes. "Just let me go."

Beast Boy releases his grip on her cape and temporarily shifts back into his human form while she descends. "It doesn't matter, you never hit the water so we'll never know if you would've been fine or not. I deserve a thank you. And twenty dollars."

"Thanks for nothing. And keep your lousy ten dollars. I guess we're even."

"What?" Beast Boy falls past Raven. "Dammit! I calculated wrong!" His cracked voice resounds off the surface of the bay as he turns into an eagle to land on the bridge. Starfire flies Cyborg across the rift to land next to him. Robin is already sprinting ahead.

"Where's he going?" Beast Boy yells. Embers dance around them and sirens cry out in the distance. The air is difficult to breathe through all the smoke.

"He saw something on one of the skyscrapers in the direction the bombs were launched from," Cyborg explains. Beast Boy turns back into an eagle and perches on Cyborg's shoulder. His head twitches back and forth. At last, Beast Boy spots it. He takes his human form again.

"Come on, Star, let's go." He becomes an albatross.

"Yes, friend Beast Boy."

The pair takes to the sky. It's a partly cloudy day, with the sun's radiance sifting in and out of the golden-blue masses the way a child weaves in and out of the dream world as they sleep. Jump City's architecture is beautifully highlighted by the sketchy light, and the leisurely clouds complement their blue canvas in turn. It's a beautiful day. Or rather, it would be if there wasn't a maniacal terrorist loose in the city blowing up whatever they please and burning the city alive while choking the sky in black. Quite typical.

Raven catches up with Starfire and Beast Boy.

"Starfire, what's our target?" The shadowy girl inquires. Her cape is in tatters from Beast Boy's talons and the rubble. It billows weakly in the late summer winds.

"Cyborg said that the criminal was attacking from the tops of those ceilings over there."

"Roofs." Raven corrects.

"Forgive me, he said the criminal was attacking from the roofs of those ceilings over there."

Raven sighs and tries to collect her patience. "Never mind, Star."

Starfire giggles and says, "Okay."

Beast Boy watches this with silent fascination as he wonders if the alien's English is improving at all. The team's been together for a number of years already. If they were in high school like normal kids their age, they'd probably be close to graduating. Maybe. Beast Boy isn't completely sure he remembers what grade he should be in now. Eleventh or twelfth. Maybe. Maybe, he's already technically graduated. Sighing inwardly, he recalls his recently conceived dilemma. He's close to becoming an adult. And when he's an adult, there's no way he's going to keep going by 'Beast Boy.' He'll look like an idiot. Of course, he doesn't particularly want to be called 'Beast Man' either. It'll set him up for a lifetime of Batman mix ups. Plus it just sounds odd to him, no matter how many times he's joked about it with Raven and Cy. Another inward sigh. The Teen Titans will probably disband, too. Even if Beast Boy fixes his name by the time they grow up, the team will still look dumb. Imagine; a bunch of middle-aged superheroes running around fighting crime and calling themselves the 'Teen Titans.' It's almost as bad as his _own _name problem.

"Beast Boy!" A voice suddenly shatters the calm waters of his thoughts. He has no time to wonder who called his name when a heat seeking missile suddenly comes spiraling down from the sky at him. Beast Boy turns falcon and dives. His sharp beak cuts through the air like a dagger and sends walls of wind rolling down, or rather up if you consider his being upside down, his sleek feathered body. A split second before he slams into the water he goes shark and cuts down through the waves smoothly. The missile veers away from the water and an explosion is narrowly avoided in this way, but when he surfaces to reorientate himself It circles around and locks on him again.

"Oh, crap . . . Raven! Raven, help!" Beast Boy yells. He scans the shore for sight of her and Starfire. He face-palms himself again. The changeling got so caught up in his thoughts that he fell behind the girls flights, and then Cyborg happened to look up and see the missile headed for the closest target. In other words . . . "Cyborg!" He yells once before diving again. The missile circles around confusedly. There's plenty of other open targets that aren't underwater, but the stupid weapon has insistently trained itself on him. In other words it either locks on to the closest target Kamikaze-like, or it's just plain after him. The first option isn't all that great for Jump City, while the second can't exactly be called ideal for Beast Boy either. Plus the bomber doesn't seem to be firing from the place Robin originally spotted it at.

Beast Boy resurfaces a safe distance from the missile near his best friend and yells his deduction. "Cy! There's more than one bomber slash missile-firing-person!"

"Yeah, I've figured that out by now, but the others are too far ahead. They don't know."

"Did you know? We've all owned these magical little devices for about four years now called a _communicators!" _Beast Boy yells hysterically.

"Only problem is I damaged mine while Robin and I were doing maintenance on the Tower. Got yours?" Cyborg remarks angrily.

The changeling digs in his pockets and comes up with a soggy old wallet with fourteen limp dollars tucked inside, some wet lint, a piece of candy that melted out of its wrapper and got stuck to a dirty handkerchief he was keeping for some reason, and a roll of film he forgot to develop. Beast Boy chunks everything into the bay except his wallet and gives Cyborg a sheepish grin.

"Dropped it."

"Hey! Duck!"

Beast Boy lets out a short yelp of surprise before diving underwater again. The missile passes right by Cyborg and begins its circle again. He does some lazy summersaults as a beluga whale while waiting for the missile to wander a ways off _again. _Finally he comes up again.

"Have any idea why it's scared of water?" Beast Boy asks.

"Either it can't sense heat underwater, it can't explode in water, or the bomber is just messing with you," Cyborg lists off on his fingers.

"Ha ha," Beast Boy chuckles dryly. "You have a gun. Blow it up so I can get out of this nasty bay and warn the others."

"Hmm . . ." Cyborg holds up his arm and puts on a show of inspecting it. "I could get rid of it, I suppose. Maybe. Maybe with a little extra persuading . . ."

"Oh come on, dude! I already made a deal with the Devil-Lady for a measly ten dollar bill and I'm not giving it up just to get you to save my ass!" Beat Boy yells hoarsely. He glances over his shoulder nervously at the missile. It's closing in on him. AGAIN.

Cyborg laughs. "Relax, man." His humanoid arm shifts into a supercharged cannon. "I was just messing with you."

The changeling lets out a sigh of relief and begins turning around for further tabs on the missile. "Dude, that wasn't funny at-EEP!"

Fire and soot singe the air as he plunges deep into the murk of the Jump City Bay. Cyborg is right on the mark. Beast Boy will just have to remind the human-machine hybrid to warn him next time a missile is trained on him and only him is about to blow him up but Cyborg is going to blow it up first. Otherwise he might end up bald sooner than he's supposed to. After waiting a safe while, he peaks out of his turtle shell and shimmies up into the sunlight. Some small fires and debris are all that remains of the missile. Beast Boy leaps out of the bay with a splash as a pterodactyl. He surveys the spread a bit, and finds that Cyborg is already dashing off into the city after Robin, Starfire, and Raven.

Reflex takes over as he hones in on the area Robin had been freaking out over before. The wind pushes him along nicely and his prehistoric wings are comfortably dry in no time. Soon the sounds of battle can be heard as well. And then seen.

The changeling lands on the roof of a nearby skyscraper instead of immediately swooping down on the scene. Robin and the girls are busy cornering a single Figure at an intersection. Some small craters are scattered across the pavement where the bomber has apparently thrown some mildly powerful explosions in self-defense. Nothing special at all. Beast Boy takes on his human form and begins scratching his grassy hair. "Huh. Maybe there's just one bomber dude after-" He stops short as another Cloaked Figure darts out into the street with a grenade aimed near where Raven is fighting. "RAVEN!" Cries the changeling. She looks up in surprise and summons a shield of dark energy just before the explosive collides with her. Beast Boy swoops down in pterodactyl form once more. When he nears the street he begins batting at the bomber with his heavy wings. After a poor attempt of fending him off with an arm, The Figure at last scrambles away. It's cloak trails after it like a colored wind.

Beast Boy shifts back just long enough to say, "Having sort of an off day, huh Raven?" She growls something in reply but he's already running after The Figure as a wolf. The changeling hopes the surprise attack on Raven is enough for them to reach the conclusion that there are multiple forces at work. If for some reason they don't conclude this, of course, Cyborg will be there in no time to fill them in. Meanwhile, there's no harm in ringing up a little glory for himself.

He rounds the corner of an office building and a grenade is suddenly launched at his face. Beast Boy shifts into a cockroach to avoid the blast and scuttles along the sidewalk nervously. When he changes back The Figure is already darting around another corner across the way. He takes flight again as a pigeon and stays a safe distance away as he pursues it. It never looks up or checks its surroundings as Beast Boy does this. Something goes off in the back of Beast Boy's mind, but the uneasy feeling isn't a strong enough cause for him to abort his mission. He follows The Figure for several miles across town.

At last, the Cloaked Figure winds up in the abandoned shipyard. Twilight is befalling Jump City, and the obstruction of the sunlight caused by its disorderly collection of skyscrapers is casting an eerie light over the spread of rusty old ship parts and upturned asphalt. A chain link fence runs around the entire perimeter, but The Figure easily jumps it. Once inside the sorry collection of old shipwrecks someone decided to haul up, The Cloaked Figure stops. Waiting.

The uneasy feeling returns, much stronger than before, and Beast Boy finds himself landing a good ways away from the alleged bomber. His stomach clenches as he glances around the hull of an old cargo ship called the S.S. Appre-something. Only part of the name has made it on this half of the ship. Beast Boy's palms begin to sweat. He shakes off the feeling and wipes his hands on his Doom Patrol uniform. This isn't the time for him to be tying himself up in nerves.

A forest green wildebeest charges out from behind the hull of the S.S. Appre- and The Figure whirls around expectantly. It outstretches a black gloved hand towards Beast Boy who pays no notice and tries to knock down The Figure with his horns anyway. Instead of sending it sprawling, though, The Figure turns to dust the instant he rams into it.

He turns back. "Huh? Hey, where'd they–"

Beast Boy is almost knocked off his own feet by another Figure from behind. He lands on all fours instead and wheels on his attacker with fangs bared. He lets out a roar and tackles it as a lion. It dissipates again and Beast Boy begins to get frustrated.

"Dude! What the hell? Stop teleporting away like a fairy and fight like a man!" He yells in an exasperated voice. Beast Boy's been yelling a lot today. It's no wonder his voice is still cracking and he's always hoarse.

A street light flickers on near the edge of the shipyard. Beast Boy stumbles backward at what it reveals. Not one Figure, but a dozen at least stand humbly beneath its soft glow. The one in the middle steps forward to speak.

"I'm sorry, but you're quite mistaken when it comes to concluding the reaches of my powers," a garbled voice explains. Beast Boy feels his hands going sweaty again. He refrains from wiping them on his uniform in front of The Figure by clenching his fists.

"Dude, whatever you are you'd better brace yourself for a thrashing!"

The Cloaked Figure and its clones scatter as Beast Boy lunges in the shape of a cheetah. He doesn't hold back, swiping, tackling, and clawing everything that moves. when this proves ineffective for one duplicate, the changeling simply does what he does best- he changes. He churns up debris with his hooves and rears up on his hind legs only to come down on The Figure's clone with a pair of brutal fists. One scampers behind a shipwreck and he takes to the wing over the mound of rusty metal. He drops out of the sky like a rock and crushes it under his massive weight. A moment later he's striking at another with poison-filled fangs, and soon he's going so wild he can't even tell what animal he is. Beast Boy's lost himself in the thick of battle to the instinct of shape-shifting. A few explosives light up the blurred night around him, but they're all easily avoided.

And soon every duplicate is demolished. Only the original remains.

The Cloaked Figure makes no motion to duplicate itself again. All it does is remove a single glove and drop the garment in the dirt. Panting, Beast Boy regains his human form.

"Ready to give up?" Beast Boy's voice is scratched and stretched from taking on the voice of so many different forms. But there is a hint of something triumphant hidden within the strain.

His opponent takes a step away. "Only if you can catch me."

The Cloaked Figure sprints away from him with inhuman speed and disappears inside the carcass of an old fishing rig. Beast Boy doesn't hesitate to follow it. They both make it up to the deck, and just when it seems the changeling is about to pin The Figure to the ground something provokes it into making a single copy more of itself that appears on the pinnacle of a monstrous oil rig fifty yards to the left of the little fishing rig. Instead of colliding with something solid, Beast Boy's lunge meets nothing but air. He tumbles over the ship's edge and hits asphalt before he can find his wings. Beast Boy isn't seriously hurt from the fall, just vexed.

The changeling manages to pick himself up off of the ground after some serious limping and wincing. A fiery glare is painted across his face. This is getting to be too much. Beast Boy needs to end this now. His emerald eyes fall upon the silhouette of The Cloaked Figure. The Jump City night is young and bright behind it. For a moment, their eyes seem to meet. Time lapses. Something passes between them.

And then Beast Boy storms forward as a colossal, raging, full-grown adult Tyrannosaurus Rex.

His battle cry rattles through the city like a thunderclap and in no time there's nothing between him and the figure. Beat Boy brings down his neck on its body before it can do anything to react, and The Figure slowly begins sliding down the face of the oil rig.

Beast Boy raises his head up for a second blow, but this time The Figure outstretches a hand a split second before their forms collide and a massive exchange of energy passes between the two of them.

Pain shoots through Beast Boy's body like liquid fire. Flashing lights blind his eyes and his ears ring with explosions of sound. A heavy feeling is thrust upon him as all the energy is sapped from his body. And the other feeling. The haunting feeling. The feeling of being stripped away inside and out. The feeling of loosing something important. The feeling of loosing himself. Beast Boy cries out, and even though he's still in the T-Rex's form his voice is his own.

Then finally, The Cloaked Figure relinquishes him. His human body falls to the ground where it lies unmoving.

The Figure gazes at its bare hand for a moment, then forms a fist. A smile is faintly visible on its shadowy lips. It digs its gloved hand into a pocket and pulls out a small remote.

Explosions consume the remains of the shipyard in flames and debris are scattered everywhere.

* * *

"Raven, are you sure you saw Beast Boy run this way?" Robin asks again. The bomber vanished into thin air an hour ago, and the four Titans have been searching for their fifth member ever since.

"I told you," she growls, "he could be anywhere by now. The last time I saw him I was busy trying to keep us from being blown up. Who knows how far he followed that doppelgänger?"

"I can't believe he dropped his communicator. This is totally ridiculous!" Robin throws his hands up over his head.

"Hey guys, did it ever occur to you that that might have been the original?" Cyborg points out. "I mean, it might explain why they disappeared all the sudden."

"If it was the original, it means the reason we can't find him is that he's gotten himself into a heap of trouble." Raven replies. "Again."

A shrill cry suddenly sounds from above the intersection. Robin shields his eyes against the glare of the city lights. Starfire's form is barely visible against it. "Star! What is it?"

As Starfire hastily descends from her lookout point, a chain of explosions ring out in the distance. The Titans exchange frantic expressions.

"Robin, there was a historically preceding animal in the old yard of ships who seemed to have been in trouble," Starfire explains worriedly when she lands.

"Was it green?" Raven inquires.

"What kind of question is that? Just how many dinosaurs have you seen running around the city today?" Cyborg exclaims.

Starfire ignores Cyborg and shakes her head. "I was too far away to be sure."

"And what about the explosion?" Robin takes Starfire's hand.

"They, too, were in the yard of ships."

The Teen Titans abandon the area. Fifteen minutes later they find themselves scouring the remains of the abandoned shipyard. All the explosion has left of the old shipwrecks are some charred sheets of steel and a tremendous mound of rubble that is overflowing into the bay. Some small fires and a single streetlamp that somehow survived the blast illuminate the property sparsely.

There's no sign of Beast Boy.

The Titans fan out and do as thorough a combing through of the property as they can manage. Raven levitates layers of rubble with her powers and empties them into the bay while the other three check underneath smaller pieces of debris. All four voices go out into the night searching. All four return unanswered.

"You know, the ironic thing is that if we'd had Beast Boy's nose here we would've found him ages ago," Cyborg points out quietly after a few minutes.

"Isn't that always the case?" Robin replies. No one speaks again except to call out Beast Boy's name.

Starfire is rooting through a small mound of seaweed covered wood when she notices the lone streetlamp is flickering. The alien looks up to see Raven staring wordlessly into a hollow she just unearthed. Starfire flies closer to get a look. Her eyes grow wide and she slowly descends to stand by Raven's side.

"Guys," Raven almost chokes out. Cyborg and Robin abandon the rubble and come running.

"What is it?" Robin yells. "What did you . . ."

They both slow to a stop like Starfire. The Teen Titans form a semicircle around the hollowed out section of ground. Starfire inches closer to Robin. Cyborg's features take on a disturbed expression. Dark storms of emotion fill Raven's eyes. Above the hollow the streetlamp cracks and goes out.

_A/N: WAAAAAAAAH! *cries in corner for half an hour then comes back* Sorry about that . . . *sniff* It's just that that part always gets me. I know it seems terrible, but I just want to assure you know that Beast Boy is not dead! I'd kill myself before making him die. I just feel horrible about what I'm doing . . . but I always had the story planned this way. Waaah! I'm so sorry! I hope you don't hate me for being so cruel and evil and cliffhanger-loving! *Sniff* Till next time. _

_~Autumnchronicles *sniff*_


	3. Empty and Alone

_A/N: Yay, update time! Okay, so I know that I'm being a really mean writer and that humor shouldn't be appropriate right now, but while I was writing this I misspelled Beast Boy's name multiple times in the heat of typing, some of the mistakes reading 'Beat Boy,' (Fighting crime and out of time dancing, all in a day's work.) 'Best Boy,' (Forget the store, the character's better.) and 'Beet Boy.' (A green, shapeshifting vegetable with arms and legs and a love for cracking jokes. Nothing out of the ordinary here.) And meanwhile, over here we have my friend trying to type 'Cyborg' in her fic and accidentally letting spellcheck change it to 'Vyborg.' Or something like that. Is the latter even a word? Lol, I think I've gone enough into the name typos. Okay, this might be slightly confusing, and if it isn't . . . well, I'm not paying for your tissues._

**3. Empty and alone**

Beast Boy hurts. He feels feverish. But he can't wake up. He's lost within the confines of his own dreams.

The changeling runs through a graveyard of ships, their battered bones arranged grotesquely in the murk. He's chasing someone. No, more than one someone. Many. Beast Boy comes to a clearing in the endless shipyard. Instead of finding those he's pursuing, he finds himself lying on the ground out cold. It's dark here, but he's sure it's him. This Beast Boy is wearing his Doom Patrol uniform. With some surprise Beast Boy realizes that he himself is wearing street clothes.

Beast Boy kneels beside the unconscious version of himself and shakes him. "Hey," Beast Boy closes his mouth in shock. His voice is . . . deeper. He shakes his head and continues. Dreams never make since. "Dude, wake up."

A noise from behind causes him to tense. "Hey! Who's there?" Beast Boy's head is pounding, but he tries not to show his pain. He relaxes when a pterodactyl flies out of the shadows and lands a few yards away. A green pterodactyl. His pterodactyl. "Dude, don't scare me like that!"

Beast Boy walks over to Pterodactyl and tries to place a hand on it. Instead of being friendly with him, Pterodactyl cries out and flies away. The changeling's brow creases. This has never happened in any of his dreams before. Maybe Pterodactyl is just mad for not being called as often as usual.

"T-Rex! Dog! Gorilla!" Beast Boy yells randomly. He knows he's called on these three recently. Hopefully they're feeling more friendly than Pterodactyl.

They form from the murk and approach him. All stop a few yards away. "Guys, what's up with Pterodactyl?"

Gorilla snorts and T-Rex lowers his head cautiously. Dog trots up to Beast Boy and the changeling lowers his hand. Something vaguely clicks when he realizes he's not wearing gloves, but he's not sure what it is. Dog sniffs the hand and retreats behind the unconscious Beast Boy. T-Rex and Gorilla follow.

"Dudes, what's going on?" Beast Boy holds his head with one hand. A cold sweat has broken out on his forehead, and his body is beginning to shake. Suddenly everyone else breaks away from the murk behind his unconscious self. All the animals he's ever been. None of them appear familiar with him. In fact, some of them even act hostile. Beast Boy's knees buckle, and he falls in a ring of dust.

"What's going on?" He whispers in horror. "Guys?"

The unconscious Beast Boy is suddenly awake and standing in front of the animals. "They don't know you anymore, dude. Neither do I."

Gar looks up in surprise. "Wha . . . What are you talking about?"

"I mean they're no longer yours to command. We're fed up with you. That's right, fed up."

"What do you mean?" Gar yells across the space angrily. He scrambles to his feet. The blood rushes to his head and makes it pound harder, but he doesn't care.

"What I mean, dude, is that you're weak. We don't like weaklings," Beast Boy smiles deviously and comes to stand in front of Gar. They are the same height exactly, but Gar is hunched over in pain and appears shorter.

"Dammit, just who do you think you are?" Gar says through clenched teeth. He can't feel his fangs.

"I'm Beast Boy."

"_I'm _Beast Boy!"

"No. You're Garfield Logan. And I am no longer you."

Gar lets out a cry of pain and collapses. He hugs himself and tries to focus on anything but the pain. His vision goes blurry as he watches the other Beast Boy and the animals turn away from him and morph into the shadows.

"Wait!" Garfield cries out. "Come back!"

No one hears him.

"Wait!"

He's alone.

"Wai . . ."

Gar turns his head slightly at a noise to see The Beast bearing down on him. His head erupts with pain.

* * *

"AAAAHH!" Beast Boy sits up in his own bed in shock. He must have hit his head on the bedpost again. Beast Boy stops screaming with some embarrassment and rubs his head.

"Not the best way to wake up . . ." he mumbles. The changeling notes that he really does have a headache and the shakes. "Must've been a fever dream."

Beast Boy slides out of his bunk bed and winces as the blood rushes to his head. He can't really remember what happened before. He must've fainted or something. Who knows how long he's been out? A glance out the window tells him it's almost dawn. He finds his digital alarm clock on the floor. Beast Boy sighs when it begins flashing '12:00' upon plugging it in again. The changeling begins running a hand through his hair, only to find it oily and gross feeling.

"Ugh . . . I need a shower," he mumbles under his breath.

Beast Boy shuffles off to his bathroom. He flicks on the light. He looks in the mirror. He stops breathing.

* * *

Raven stares at her herbal tea unemotionally. She's barely touched it, and it's long since gone cold. Cyborg mechanically punches the controls of his video game. His scores are terrible, but he doesn't seem to notice or care. Robin and Starfire sit on the couch holding hands, but neither appears particularly thrilled to be in the other's presence today. All four Titans are hollow eyed and tired. None of them have gotten much sleep since . . . since they found him.

The text 'Game Over' begins flashing on the screen again and Cyborg chunks the controls to the ground. "Man, he's been out for almost three days. He's gotta wake up soon."

"It's not that simple," Raven says in her monotone. "That villain seriously . . . damaged him. He might remain unconscious for months from the aftereffects."

"And then what?" Robin asks tiredly.

Raven sighs and shoves her teacup away. "We need to research this villain. Find out exactly what their power is."

"Did their power not become clear upon the discovery of friend Beast Boy in the yard of ships?" Starfire points out.

"Well, yeah, but I'm talking about the precise mechanics behind–" A high pitched shriek cuts Raven off and resounds throughout the Tower. The four exchange looks.

"Beast Boy," they say in unison. Another shriek. They bolt out of the room.

* * *

Gar shrieks at the sight of his face– blonde hair, blue eyes, and _normal _skin. No elf ears. No fangs. It's a face he hasn't seen peering back at him since he was a child. He runs his gloved hands through his hair in shock then suddenly rips off the gloves. Gar's hands are normal, too.

"What's going on?" Gar says aloud. He suddenly realizes his voice is deeper and without cracks, just like in the dream. He lets out another shriek and stumbles backward into the wall. He can't pull his eyes away from his reflection.

Robin is the first to burst into his room. "Beast Boy! Beast Boy, are you okay?"

Garfield manages to pull his horror-filled eyes away from the mirror long enough to meet the leader's gaze. Slowly, he shakes his head. "Dude, whaddya think?" Gar's voice is definitely not the same as before. "Oh God, what happened to me?"

Starfire, Cyborg, and Raven enter the room after Robin.

"Friend Beast Boy! You are awake!"

Gar shakily peels himself away from the wall and joins his friends, shaking his head all the while. "No . . . no . . . that's not my name . . ."

"What are you talking about, BB?" Cyborg pipes up. "Of course it's your name."

"No . . . Beast Boy's gone . . . I'm Garfield Logan. Just Gar. Just Gar . . ." His azure eyes become wide. "No it can't be true!"

Raven grabs his shoulders to steady him. "Beast Boy, get a grip. Listen to me. You have to tell me what happened."

Gar relaxes a little. "Tell you what?"

"Tell us the last thing you can remember. What happened after you ditched us?" Raven's usual monotone is tinged with a distinct urgency. Sparks of dark aura trickle from her body.

Gar winces. "Dude, I didn't ditch you! I was trying to take care of the bomber that was after you! I followed him all the way to the shipyard where I realized he was making duplicates of himself to throw us all off and then I almost kicked his butt and then he used his power to teleport himself to trick me into doing something and it worked and I charged him and somehow when he touched me everything just went totally out of control and I lost consciousness!"

Gar's eyes go wide again. "Wait . . . when he touched me, he did something to me . . . it felt really weird, and it hurt a lot."

Raven lets go of him. "He stole your powers."

Garfield doesn't say anything. He stares numbly at his pale hands for a moment, then suddenly curls up on the floor.

"You gonna be okay, BB?" Cyborg says softly.

"No. That isn't my name."

Cyborg steps back.

"Listen, we're not just gonna let this guy run loose," Robin points out, "We are going to catch him. You'll be . . . yourself again soon. You hear me?"

A pause.

Then a shaky sigh.

"I'm not feeling so well."

Raven motions towards the door. Everyone takes the hint and begins to leave. Everyone that is, except Starfire.

"Perhaps there is something else you want, friend Beast Boy?" She inquires innocently. Gar's eyes flash and he leaps to his feet.

"Don't call me that! Just leave! Get out of my room! Now!"

Star's eyes begin pooling over, but Gar's too busy blinking back his own angry tears to notice. Robin hugs Starfire close to him and claps a hand over her mouth. Raven positions herself between Garfield and the remaining three Titans.

"You need to calm down _now._ I don't want to hurt you," she growls. Her cloak rises up around her.

"You don't understand," he shakes his head.

"Beast Boy, listen!" Robin orders.

"That's not my name!"

"Beast Boy, stop it!"

"Beast Boy!"

"That's not my–"

"Garfield!" Raven screams. Dark energy flexes through the room like a whip. The light fixtures in his room burn out and shatter. Spiderweb cracks cover the windows, and the digital alarm clock explodes. The temperature drops and Gar is momentarily stunned into silence by the sudden chill.

Raven's cloak submits to gravity once more and she fights to suppress her emotions.

"Guys, I'll handle this." She says over her shoulder. Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire reluctantly clear the room. Raven turns face Gar again. "Now, I know this really sucks for you and you hate this and you want to be your annoying-green-pointy-eared-self again, but you need to understand that your stress is affecting my stress and if you keep this up that might be _you _exploding next time."

Gar slowly slides closer to Raven, until he is a hair breadth's away to whisper in her ear. "You don't know. None of you know."

Raven's dark eyes narrow. "Know what?"

"You don't know what it's like to be alone like this. I could _feel _the animals inside me before. They were always there. But now I'm totally empty inside. And none of you understand."

"That's not true. I have my emotions, you know that."

"One difference. I had, you have. Leave me alone. Now."

Raven glares at him, then whirls. Her purple cloak smacks into his body as she does so, but neither say a word about it. Once in the doorway, Raven pauses and throws a final remark over her shoulder. "You make no sense, you know that? You say you feel empty, and yet you're throwing a fit over wanting to be alone. Seriously, I thought _I_ was supposed to be the one throwing people out of my room."

Raven slams the door behind her with a pocket of black aura. Garfield stares at the spot where she was just standing. He sniffs and swipes at his eyes. The former changeling that used to be known as Beast Boy crawls onto the bottom bunk and curls up guiltily. Now that his friends are gone, Garfield Logan can mourn his loss freely.

_A/N: *sniff* Okay, so basically BB got really sick when the person stole his powers *sniff* and he was having nightmares about the animals leaving him. They're kinda like Raven's emotions; he's never really alone because of them until his powers are stolen and he's left with this awful feeling of emptiness. *sniff* And the other BB he saw that denounced him was the representation of his powers leaving him (Garfield Logan) and joining the criminal. That's why he had a mental breakdown *sniff* and denied that that was his name, because of the way he now feels. And Raven is pissed at how he's taking this. Hopefully that made sense. *sniff* I hope you can bear with me on the opening plot line._

_~Autumnchronicles_


End file.
